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China’s agricultural paradigm shift
China’s agricultural support policies are moving towards marketised institutions, after a decade of state subsidies for direct production resulted in oversupply.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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China’s Major Tech Firms Will Dominate SE Asia’s Emerging Markets: Who Wins And Who Loses?
Digital behemoths Alibaba and Tencent are expanding their e-commerce, cloud and data capabilities across the SEA region, which has a rapidly growing population of more than half a billion people.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- e-commerce, fintech, MSMEs, public policy
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In a World of 5 Billion Mobile Phone Users, ID Policy Needs to Catch Up – Fast
With a global subscriber base of over 5 billion, the mobile ecosystem has created a digital platform that is increasingly connecting everyone and everything. Yet millions risk exclusion from this network – and the social, digital and financial exclusion this implies – due to lack of proof-of-identity. A new GSMA report offers a global perspective of the trends and linkages between access to mobile and access to official identification - and explores solutions for reducing the "identity gap."
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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2017 not rosy for mobile cash in Kenya
“Months of political uncertainty affected economic activity. Many sectors did less business than usual which translated into decelerated growth in payment channels in general,” said Mr Stephen Nduati, former head of national payment systems at the CBK, who now works as an independent consultant on mobile money in Kenya.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India urges state banks to improve lending practices
The ministry said that it wants lenders to work on improving customer responsiveness, responsible banking, deepening financial inclusion and digitalization, and staff development. At the heart of all this would be a drive to weed out corruption and improve efficiency.
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, public policy
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Billionaire Sam Zell: BlackRock’s Larry Fink is ‘extraordinarily hypocritical’ to push social responsibility
BlackRock's Larry Fink and other CEOs are "extraordinarily hypocritical" to push companies for more social responsibility, billionaire investor Sam Zell told CNBC on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North America
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Liberia’s big school experiment
Liberia, which elected a new president last week, has among the highest percentage of out-of-school primary children in the world.
In a bid to improve the availability and quality of schools, the West African country has been carrying out a controversial experiment.- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- NGOs, public policy
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South Africa really can’t afford free education for all despite the liberation promise
The promise of free education is one South Africa’s liberation heroes have made since 1955 through the Freedom Charter document. The commission’s findings contradict the charter’s dreams and president Jacob Zuma’s compromise to students during the 2015 #FeesMustFall protests that free education was indeed possible.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public policy